Statuses in the close
The Close tab uses two separate sets of statuses: one for the month as a whole, shown in the Periods rail and again beside the month name, and one for each row of the Close checklist. This page is a lookup for both.
The states a month can be in
Four statuses, and a month is always in exactly one of them. The first has an extra wording reserved for the month whose turn it is to close.
| Status | How it looks | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Open | Grey hollow circle | Nobody has started this month's close. The checklist you can see is a preview of how the month would grade right now; nothing is saved against the month yet. |
| Open — up next | Grey hollow circle | The same state, on the one month whose turn it is to close — the earliest month not yet closed. This wording appears in the Periods rail, and it is the month where Start close is enabled. |
| In Review | Blue part-filled circle | The close has been started. The checklist is saved against the month, automated checks have run, manual items can be ticked, and Re-check and Close period are available. |
| Closing… | Spinner in the rail, a clock on the header chip | The close is running in the background. Nothing is editable while it runs, and the page shows The close job is running — progress shows in the job tray. The checklist re-validates, the report pack snapshots, then the period locks. |
| Closed | Green padlock | The month is signed off and locked. The rail subtitle reads Closed followed by the date it was closed, and the header adds books locked through Jun 30, 2026 to the date range. |
The rail and the month header describe the same state in the same words. The one difference is the rail's extra — up next hint on the month whose turn it is, which the header expresses by enabling Start close rather than by changing the status chip.
The rail's one-line subtitle carries the status; the header carries it as a coloured chip beside the month name. If the two ever disagree, reload the page — they are drawn from the same status.
The order a month moves through
The ordinary path runs in one direction:
- Open — until someone clicks Start close.
- In Review — the working state, where nearly all of a close happens.
- Closing… — from the moment you confirm in the Close June 2026 dialog until the background work finishes.
- Closed — locked, with the reports frozen as the month's numbers of record.
Two things send a month backwards, and both land it on In Review, never on Open:
- Reopening a closed month. The lock comes off and the month returns to In Review with its close history intact — see reopen a closed month.
- A close that does not finish. If the close is refused part-way through, or the background work fails, the month goes back to In Review so you can look at what changed and try again. A month is never left sitting on Closing… because something went wrong.
Only one month can be in Closing… at a time, and while one is, no other month can be started, closed or reopened.
A month that reads Open but already has a record
Open means the close has not been started — not SKU.io has never touched this month. Two actions create a month's record without starting its close: Export pack, and Capture provider balances in the Report pack header. Run either on an untouched month and the month still reads Open, still shows a preview checklist rather than a saved one, and still offers Start close as its primary button. Nothing is committed until you press it.
There is one visible tell. The Periods rail starts showing a 0/0 counter beside that month, where a month with no record at all shows no counter. So a rail entry reading Open with 0/0 beside it is a month somebody has exported or captured against without starting its close. The month header is unaffected: its progress ring keeps counting the preview checklist, so the same month can read 0/0 in the rail and 10/19 in the header. The rail counter is counting the saved checklist, which is empty until you press Start close.
Months before your books began
There is no status for "before we started". Months earlier than your accounting start date are left out of the Periods rail altogether rather than shown as unavailable — the rail begins at the first month your books cover. A business with no accounting history yet sees the whole workspace replaced by No accounting history yet and Months appear here once your accounting start date is set and entries begin generating — then you can run a formal month-end close. See which months you can close.
What each checklist result means
The Close checklist mixes two kinds of row. Automated checks carry a status icon and are graded for you. Manual items carry a tick box and are yours to confirm.
Automated checks
| Icon | Meaning | Effect on the close |
|---|---|---|
| Green tick in a circle | Passed. Nothing outstanding on this check for the month. | Counts as complete. Nothing to do. |
| Amber warning triangle | A warning-level check found something. The row's one-line summary says what — 4 still in flight, 842.10 divergence (limit 1.00). | The month can still close, but you must acknowledge this item in the close dialog. |
| Red cross in a circle | A blocking check is failing. | The close is refused until you fix the data and re-check. It cannot be acknowledged. |
| Grey clock face | Not yet run. The item exists on the month's checklist but has not been evaluated. | Click Re-check to grade it. |
| Grey minus in a circle, row dimmed | Not applicable, with the reason printed underneath — for example Not applicable — no opening balance was set up for this books-start, so there is nothing to apply. | Counts as complete, and never needs acknowledging. |
Two things follow from the way severity works, and both are worth knowing when you read a checklist at speed:
- A red cross only ever appears on a blocking check. When a warning-level check finds a problem it shows the amber triangle instead. So every red cross on the list is something you have to fix, and the count of them is exactly the red N blocking chip in the header.
- A dimmed row is not a failed one. Not applicable means the check has nothing to say about your setup or this month, so it stands aside — and a blocking check that is standing aside drops its Blocking chip too, because in that month it blocks nothing.
The grey clock is where a brand-new item sits before its first evaluation. You will see it briefly on a month you have started, and on a check that was added to the list after the month was started — new checks are appended to an existing checklist rather than replacing it, and they grade on the next Re-check.
A check that cannot finish is reported as a failure at its own level, not as a pass. A blocking check that could not run shows the red cross and refuses the close; a warning-level one shows the amber triangle and asks for an acknowledgement.
Manual items
| Tick box | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Empty | To do. Nobody has confirmed this item for the month. |
| Ticked | Done. Underneath the title you get the name of the person who ticked it and the day they did, as a month and date — Jul 16. The year and the time are not shown. |
Manual items are the three built-in review items — Review Income Statement, Review Balance Sheet and Review Inventory Valuation & COGS — plus anything your business has added to the Custom group. Left unticked at close time, each behaves like a warning: the close dialog lists it as Review Income Statement — not checked off and asks you to acknowledge it.
Unticking is allowed while the month is In Review. Once the month is closing or closed, the tick boxes are read-only — see when the tick box is disabled.
What counts as complete
The 4/19 complete counter in the checklist header, the per-group counters and the progress ring in the month header all count the same three things as done:
- an automated check that passed,
- an automated check that is not applicable,
- a manual item that is ticked.
Everything else — warnings, blocking failures, checks not yet run and unticked manual items — counts as outstanding. This is why a month can close on a counter well short of full: acknowledging a warning lets the close through without turning that row green. On a closed month the counter stays exactly where it was at the moment of close.
Acknowledged at close
On a closed or reopened month, any row that was outstanding when the month was signed off carries the line Acknowledged at close under its title. It is a record, not a result: the row's own status is unchanged, the figures behind it are unchanged, and the underlying problem is still there. It says only that the person who closed the month did so knowing about that item.
For the difference between a row you must fix and one you can acknowledge, see what stops a close, and what only needs a tick.
Next steps
- The Close tab at a glance — every panel, chip and button on the page.
- The close checks — what each automated check measures.
- How the close checklist works
- Close a month
- Which months you can close, and in what order
- Review the ledger